Page 49 of Ace My Heart

“So, what are we going to do now?” I asked as we rode the lift up to Ben’s apartment. Joel still had his sunglasses on.

“If you don’t mind, I’ll try and get us on an earlier flight home – I want to get back to Mum. Just as long as you don’t mind yourhot sexwith Ben being cut short.” He grinned cheekily.

I grimaced. I hadn’t been back to Ben’s room after that first night. I’d used the excuse that I needed to focus on the tournament. What excuse was I going to use now?

The doors snicked open into Ben’s apartment. Afternoon sunlight was streaming through the glass roof into the pool. The water glimmered enticingly.

“I think I might take a dip,” I said to Joel as I headed towards our bedrooms.

“Mind if I join you?” he asked.

I looked at him in surprise. “Since when have you ever asked permission before?”

He took his glasses off and grinned wickedly at me. “Right, don’t know what got into me for a moment there, Stink.” He disappeared into his bedroom.

Inside mine, I pulled on my yellow bikini – I wasn’t planning onswimming any laps today. I grabbed a towel and returned to the pool area, sliding into the comfortably cool water and floating on my back.

Joel sauntered in, wearing board shorts for once.

“Oh, you covered up for me – thank you!” I called cheekily. He jumped into the water beside me, sending little waves over me.

“And you decided to uncover forme! How thoughtful of you.” He ran a couple of fingers across my exposed belly. I gasped, inhaling a mouthful of water.

“Jesus, Mel, the pool is supposed to stay outside your lungs!” Joel cursed as he hauled me upright and patted my back as I coughed and spluttered.

“And your hands are supposed to stay away from my bare skin,” I grunted, still catching my breath. I looked up to see his eyes glinting with … something I couldn’t name.

He took a step towards me. “Why fight this, Mel? It’s inevitable, you know.”

“What exactly is inevitable, Joel?” I asked, stepping backwards.

He advanced on me again. “That one day you’re going to snap, and you’ll beg me to touch youeverywhere.” He stepped closer again, skating his fingers across my ribs. My skin burst into goosebumps under his touch. My breath caught in my throat. My nipples puckered as his fingers flitted up, stroking the undersides of my breasts through the thin bikini fabric.

Something in medidsnap then. I lifted the string of my bikini top over my head, letting the triangles drop away from my breasts. I glanced down long enough to see how my nipples jutted towards him lewdly, before biting my lip and looking back to Joel. His mouth was a perfect ‘O’. My heart pounded, even as I took another step backwards, out of the reach of his questing hands.

“Take a good look, Joel, because this is the closest you’re ever going to get.”

“Uh, aren’t you two a little old to be playing ‘you show me yours, I’ll show you mine’?” Ben’s deep voice asked from the side of the pool. He was stunning in his conservative work suit, but it didn’tmake me tingle one little bit. I hastily put my boobs away, avoiding Ben’s gaze, cheeks flaming.

Joel cleared his throat, eyes still intent on me. “If we’d gotten to the part where I showed her mine, we would have been playing amuchmore adult game.”

What the fuck was Ithinking? I climbed out of the pool, wrapping my towel around me and rushing back into the house. I heard Ben’s footsteps, but Joel’s voice called him back.

“I wouldn’t follow her if I were you.”

My chest tightened and I wheezed as I ducked into my room. Had Joel been warning Ben about my bad mood or warning Ben about something else entirely?

Not my circus, not my clowns, I told myself as I closed my bedroom door on the humiliation.

Safe alone in my room, I flung the towel down and tore my bikini off, jumping into a shower hot enough that I wouldn’t feel the heat of my embarrassment. I’d just offered my tits to Joel! Had I been trying to shock him? The way my nipples had strained towards him suggested otherwise …

I scrubbed shampoo into my hair, cringing. I almost hadn’t moved away when those big hands were reaching towards my breasts; a little voice in the back of my mind whispered sordid things about what might have happened if Ben hadn’t arrived when he did.

God! Why did I put myself in that situation? WithJoelno less?

My phone rang. Jumping out of the shower, I half wrapped a towel around me and grabbed for it.

“Mel! Hey, I was live-streaming your game. That Chinese chick is afreak!”

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